Create Clay Hats and Crowns!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

I 'm Feeling connected and working through a lot of dolls and Ideas...ok..2 down...a million more to go!!!

Anyway....The Pink Leopard Cake Doll has a funky little face and and I got to practice my favorite painting technique in Pink for her cake hat that was created from Pluffy clay!!! Leopard..i just love it! My good Friend and Teacher, Lillian Alberti, taught me how to paint Leopard Print... I am forever greatful. I also did her shoes the same print, and added Teeny tiny polymer roses...also a Technique taught to me by a good friend and teacher, Amber Dawn Inventive Soul! ...I think a girl should always have matching accessories....

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Pluffy Snow Goose Hat

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Her dress and hat have tiny polymer flowers made with a kemper cutter

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Pluffy Cake Hat...the tiny beads are actually polymer clay created from a cool "fondant" mold...what'll they come up with next!

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I also completed my little sad faced doll...she is my favorite...she is frail and skinny, quite sad..but I just have to Love her....something in her little face. She is a Winter girl...like me, a saggitarius...her name is December Babe and her hat is a SnowGoose made from pluffy clay and a cool candy mold! After I baked the goose..I carved her a little thinner and added paperclay to the bottom creating a cap do her head would fit...

Monday, November 21, 2011

She is getting sanded and strung! She'll be painted with watercolors instead of acrylics

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Choosing Colors

Ready for wigging..I think Red hair!

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What will she be?

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New Faces in "first stage" of refinement

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I just cant pinpoint a tail color for her....maybe if I wig her first..hmmm

So its the end of November...so many dolls to finish...by Christmas! But new faces keep popping up in my head...and I have to keep stopping what I'm trying to complete...to just "Quickly " sculpt that face that I keep seeing....ugh....feeling crazy with this energy! Does that ever happen to you? I bet that it does...but I think sometimes we stop it from coming by trying to Follow THE RULES!!!!... November and December are always powerful months for me....I guess for most people too...Thanksgiving and Christmas. This time is "Magical"..... sometimes overwhelming...but its always"Exciting".... and Dec is also my Birthday...a double whammy of energy and focusing on what I "Want" and what I "have" to do! haha

Anyway...here are some dolls that absolutely must get completed!!! One will be going to Holland to my Over the top...talented friend Marijke van ooijen....she's gotta be "real special"!!! And another is going to Totowa NJ..to my good friend Alison. I grew up with Alison...and when I was 15 she was in a very bad car accident...I made her this plaster decoupaged book with a little girl in it...and 35 years later...she still has it! Sometimes friends are there to remind us of our future dreams and our "now" accomplishments...A never ending story!

So I am also working on an etsy shop where I will sell some dolls and also some sculpting tools and tutorials....Time...hmmm..I guess I'll figure it out as I go along....no big plan! haha (Not that there really is ever a big plan....)

Friday, November 4, 2011

I took a two day class in NY at Gwen and Doris Jackson's House. What an amazing experience...all the way around. I traveled with Heather Brauner...and as soon as we arrived at the Sisters' "huge" newly renovated house...I felt right at home....many sudents stayed in the many rooms on three floors ...Like one huge "Pajama Party" !!!

Then 2 days of working on a doll....I am truley amazed by what I learned and accomplished in that time!!! Something clicked for me upon meeting Ankie...her LOVE for the "doll" form and her undying energy was PURE POSITIVE INSPIRATION!!! I loved being with her and learning more stuff!!!! I purchased her book, and on the back cover....she has written....'Dollmaking, a never ending Story." WOW!!!! aint that the truth!!!?!!
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well...when I arrived home...I took my doll head and hands and put them on the counter to admire what i had created...and along comes my most favorite cat in the universe, moon..and "Swats" the one hand...I watch in slow motion as it smashes down on the tile floor...ugh...4 fingers crack off! MOON!!!!!

4 broken fingers on the right hand!@!! First stage of repair!

But...amazingly..I used e6000 and holee!!!! they are stuck! I sanded and now will have to apply a little more paperclay!!! Just another one of life's Lessons!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

PUMPKIN HATS made from a marshmallowy bakeable "secret" clay..see below

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So a couple of photos of my paperclay doll and embellishing workshop at Art is....This was just a "thrilling" class....everyone worked hard for two solid days...the class was filled with amazing mixed media and doll artists ......and a very talented doll Artist helper, Heather Brauner ........Missy Munroe is not in any of the pics as she left a day early, Sorry Missy!!!

Now on to Halloween....not much time.... no more lolligagging.......but two Pumpkin Girls have been started! My trade this year was a mold and instruction for creating these funky little pumpkins!

The Mold....Amazingly...I found in the Dollar store!!!! An Ice cube tray!!! Wow....best find yet!!! when I bent the tray in half...the stems ended up going in the same direction, creating a 3d pumkin mold. I used a pretty cool clay that i had bought a year ago .... I hated it so I so i tossed it aside. surprisingly it never hardened even though I didnt cover it....what the ???? well I finally read the directions...and what I thought was a marshmallowy air dry clay...is actually a clay THAT MUST BE BAKED....! WOW...IT WORKED BEAUTIFULLY IN THE MOLD AND BAKED SMOOTH AND LIGHT!!! hooray FOR "PLUFFY".... IN THE KIDS CLAY AT MICHAELS!!!! HAHAH

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Finally....ugh!!! Cindy Dolls are completed ready for their tags and bags!...Wigging is a time consuming affair for ten dolls....but I think its really the point where they receive their personalities!!! I mainly use Goat Hair because I love its silkiness and it just seems the most realistic. Hair has always been an Issue for me! Four kids in our family, I was the only one that had this huge head of frizz and curls that grew out and up instead of down! Maybe that is why I take the time to prepare and beautify the hair ...Just a weirdo thing that is important to me!!!

I buy a whole goat fleece...actually many fleeces of different lengths and textures in a natural color after the "shearing" season. I have to separate the matted, dirty, smelly!!! hair into bundles..wash it many times and condition it. I dye the bundles with regular hair color....and then condition again...and de-matt, trim and brush ...what a job!!! But I love the results and the ability to have any color and texture hair on hand.

When the doll is complete, I cover her with plastic wrap and carefully drill the top of her head with my little walnut hollow drill...this is a great drill because it fits in the palm of my hand ...its light and I can control it. after drilling, I coat the raw paperclay with a tacky glue...and then I start to wig her.......

So Finally!!!... These dolls are moving along﻿﻿ at lightening speed. Once I just sit and focus...the ideas flow and the outfit comes together. I thought for sure they'd just hang there for another year...but I seem to work better under pressure...haha (whew!)

Anyway.... I like Candy...so I found these cool swirly mint candy molds (Wilton)....the perfect "TAM" hat for Cindy...When I think of Suess..I think STRIPES!!! and colorful...ugh...

two things that are hard for me...but I was able to put a Pink Candy...glittery shiny "Twist" to the idea...and I'm liking it now. I Powdered up the candy molds and then used paperclay...trying to "hollow" out a head shape in each candy hat. When Dried...I drilled a hole so that the armature wire protruding from the dolls head could go through the hat...the I made tiny whipped cream poufs from the same clay...and drilled a hole halfway through, so that it becomes a cap to the hat...hiding the armature wire.

I Created my jacket pattern...and planned it so that i could fit a wire ring inside the jacket bottom to create a crazy suess-like shape....I then created tiny clay buttons...I started from an Idea my friend Sue Milo had using paper....But I'm "More CLAY"!!! Sue used a tiny embossing folder that has the cutest tiny buttons...she embossed the buttons and punched them out with small circle punches. I really wanted a thicker button...so i tried "CLAY" in the embossing folder ...WHOA! so cool!!! after baking the buttons...I drilled tiny holes with the smallest drill bit and then pushed silk ribbon through, tying a knot....

The Pants were made from plain pink velvet fabric that I Stamped with a neat line stamp painted with acrylic paint...then I sprinkled with fine angel dust glitter....

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Well....no good computer down the shore....but its the END of SUMMER and back to blogging......I miss all my DOLL FRIENDS...cant wait to see what everyone is up to!!! Here is whats been going on going on here.....

Getting my paperclay doll class together for Art is 2011, and creating some suessical dolls for this Grand Event!!!!!!!!!! So I'm Creating My Version of the Grinches Cindy charachter in a tiny paper clay doll......All the pants are made...a stretch Velvet in light pink that was stamped with a really cool "stripe" stamp that I have...I used mauvy bright pink acrylic paint...after the stripes dried....I painted a layer of fabric medium over that and then dusted a light coat of light opalescent sparkle...hit it with a heat gun....looks cool....and still stretched right over the dolls legs.....

Her Jacket is a baby pink "SHINY Raincoat " Fabric.....I'll trim it with this funky faux wild fur in white. After all the jackets are sewn...wigging is next....then painting tiny "shiny pink patent leather shoes"!!!!

About Me

So this Dollmaking journey continues with my Passion for sculpting in paperclay...and embellishing with every kind of Media that I can get my hands on! I Teach Sculpting paper clay dolls and embellishing in Mixed Medias.